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SpaceRyde, formerly called Loonify Space, is a company developing a launch system to carry small satellites into orbit. It is headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and was founded in 2018 by Saharnaz Safari and Sohrab Haghighat.
The company's launch system consists of a balloon that carries a rocket up to approximately 35 km, and then the rocket is launched in mid-air for orbital or suborbital flights. The SpaceRyde launch system is designed specifically for launching small satellites into orbit. SpaceRyder claims it is offering the lowest cost per KG of payload of any launch provider (as of February 2020).
On June 9, 2019, SpaceRyde performed its first test flight in North Bay, Ontario, and was conducted at a low altitude. The company released a statement about their test flight by telling reporters they carried out:
A scaled down version of their launch platform and rocket in Northern Ontario, Canada. The test wasn’t a complete success – a modification to the off-the-shelf rocket engine they used didn’t work exactly as expected – but it did demonstrate that their in-flight launch platform orientation tech worked as intended, and Safari says the malfunction that did occur is relatively easy to fix.
On March 18, 2019, SpaceRyde announced raising an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Y Combinator (lead investor), Pi Campus, Pegasus Tech Ventures, and One Way Ventures. The seed funding was announced right after Y Combinator's W19 Demo Day.
